One general type of a mop makes use of a head having fibrous yarn and this type is most commonly wrung to expel moisture by means of a "mop bucket" having rollers therein which are capable of being moved towards one another as the yarn strands are drawn between, and the squeezing action expels water from the yarn. Another type of mop is provided with means to lock yarn into a socket, and a plastic core (with or without rollers) slides over the yarn to squeeze water from it. This method limits the wringing action, and is unsuitable for larger mops which are used commercially. The core is also an encumberance on the handle. A third type is a type which employs a sponge material, usually having a ligno cellulose base, and the sponge material is in the form of a rectangular pad which is squeezed by the folding together of a pair of wings. This invention relates to a mop of the fibrous yarn type which has many advantages over the sponge type, in that the mop head is more effective when of the fibrous type (usually cotton) than sponges in mopping a floor.
Prior art mops of the fibrous type fall into three general categories. The first general category, and possibly the closest prior art to the instant invention, is particularly illustrated in the U.S. specifications Nos. 538,336 (Loftus), 728,332 (Thomas), 695,043 (Gee), 1,067,570 (Ziegler), 1,754,856 (Haines), 428,696 (Rolls) and 2,111,987 (Morell). These specifications describe means whereby a fibrous strand type of mop head comprises means for wringing and in some instances, the strands are in the form of loops. By having the strands in the form of loops, there are no ends to fray. However the devices as illustrated in the various specifications referred to above are mostly inconvenient to wring, and one object of this invention is to provide improvements whereby the yarn strands can be quickly and easily transposed from a wringing position to an operating position and vice versa. As will be seen hereunder, in this invention the object is met by arranging the yarn into a plurality of loop strands and gripping the strands intermediate their ends, and moving the strands from an operative position to a wringing position by relative movement of the two yarn engaging means.
The second type of yarn squeezing mechanisms which are disclosed in prior art are typically illustrated in the U.S. Patents 3,364,512 (Yamashita), 3,150,400 (Ungaroli), and 3,462,788 (Abbott) but in all these instances the yarn is squeezed by running a loop or sleeve over the yarn and the experience of the applicant herein has indicated that such methods are partially ineffectual.
There is a third prior art method which is typically illustrated in the U.S. Patents Nos. 2,524,192 wherein a mop is arranged to be squeezed into a bucket by a wringing action, one end of the mop engaging the tension means in the bucket, but again there is the inconvenience of separately attaching portion of the mop to the bucket, and such an arrangement fails to meet the object of simplicity of use.